


Simulated Friendships and Love: Unabridged Edition

by Padriac_Zozzrian



Series: Simulated Friendships and Love: The Complete Series [1]
Category: Yandere Simulator (Video Game)
Genre: Ayano isn't as emotionless as she thinks, Btw rainbow girls and boys are here too, But she’s quite cynical regardless, F/F, F/M, How did I make such a long fanfic out of such a small idea lol, Long runner here, Osana and Raibaru were MADE FOR EACH OTHER and I will DIE for this ship, References the Terraria Calamity Mod a bit, The Budo/Ayano is very onesided, Weekly Updates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23951089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Padriac_Zozzrian/pseuds/Padriac_Zozzrian
Summary: Unfortunately abandoned, for "now", which is probably going to be a few months.Read if you want, but it only goes up to Osana Day One.Ayano Aishi falls in Love with Taro Yamada.Over the course of ten weeks, ten others do, too.And she gets rid of them without sparing them a second thought after the fact...Updates weekly. Every Saturday if you're in the UK.
Relationships: Ayano Aishi | Yandere-chan/Budo Masuta, Ayano Aishi | Yandere-chan/Taro Yamada | Senpai, Budo Masuta/Oka Ruto, Osana Najimi/Taro Yamada | Senpai, Raibaru Fumetsu/Osana Najimi
Series: Simulated Friendships and Love: The Complete Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1747675
Comments: 12
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1: Simulated Emotions:

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Astrum Simulation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23878591) by [Padriac_Zozzrian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Padriac_Zozzrian/pseuds/Padriac_Zozzrian). 



> Funny story, this. This all began when I was roleplaying Osoro Shidesu and Astrum Aureus (Calamity Mod) in a relatively unknown crossover roleplay.  
> I won't link it, because I respect its community, and am glad to be a part of it.  
> But anyways, at some point, I made Aureus take over Akademi High.  
> Then, I decided to make that idea into its own fanfiction: Astral Simulator.  
> THEN, I wrote two prologues for it. The first was just Aureus chilling.  
> The second prologue was an entire fanfic of its own, though.  
> 1689 entire words summarising what the next chapter of it brushed over in like a hundred.  
> So I remade that second prologue into this fanfic, and removed any ties it had to that crossover.  
> To make a long story short, I was compelled to write an entire Yandere Simulator Fanfiction, by my actions in a roleplay that had NOTHING to do with Yandere Simulator.  
> I hope this doesn't ruin my entire fanfic writing career...  
> I also think that this may just be the longest fanfic in this fandom ever, once it's done...  
> ...  
> I want to make this clear now.  
> I have no real idea what I'm doing when writing this.  
> I'm just letting myself be the characters, and acting as if they are me.  
> As such, some of my personality will bleed over into them. Sorry.  
> This fic kinda turned into a study into how I think, kind of. Hmm.  
> At the end of the day, though, a long fanfic is a long fanfic.  
> I hope you like it, because I sure do!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayano falls in love with Taro Yamada.  
> As she realises, she's not the only one who loves him.  
> But that other person has themselves another person, who has such an obvious crush on her, it makes Ayano cringe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I have no idea how to write these characters, especially when they're talking, oh god I hate dialogue"  
> -me, before writing this prologue.  
> "Oh my god it's so easy, I actually relate to these characters how did I not realise this sooner OH MY GOD HOW IS THIS FOUR THOUSAND WORDS?!?!?"  
> -me, after writing this prologue, but still not done yet, only up to Ayano's house part here.  
> "HOW DID I MAKE THAT TINY LITTLE SCENE INTO A FULL THOUSAND WORDS?!?!?!?"  
> -me after finishing up this prologue with the "Ayano's house part", which somehow got the total word count to almost six thousand words.  
> Needless to say, this is my longest fic ever. By far. Even though it's just a prologue.  
> "Please kill me, I can't keep this up for a full year, can I?"  
> -me realising that I have to do this for every chapter afterwards, for which I have planned at least 50.  
> Needless to say, I'm confident this'll end up in the top 5 longest YS fanfics for a looooong time... but only once it's complete.

**Chapter 1: Simulated Emotions:**

Week Zero, Friday:

**Ayano's POV:**

Ayano Aishi.

Nicknamed "Yan-chan" by her 'friends' at school, and many of her classmates.

The youngest known daughter of the Aishi Family.

A Family that, as far as they knew, had always been cursed.

Each woman born of the family would be entirely devoid of any capacity to feel or emote at all.

They would go about their lives as a broken, hollow husk of a human being.

Waiting, and wanting, for a chance to be a human.

No matter what.

They were incapable of seeing the beauty of the world, only seeing the cold, bitter truth of the world.

Always looking at the cynical side of things, because that was the most obvious side to see to them.

Heartless and logical, almost like a robot.

That is, until they found love.

As far as they knew, love came in the form of a man. Their Senpai.

And when they saw this man, they would go out of their way to make sure he saw them.

But not for the true demons that they truly were, instead, they would make themselves attractive to whatever he liked.

...But if he liked other women, or other men...

They would have to be taken care of.

Historically in the Aishi bloodline, there were many murderers.

Well, closer to assassins than blind, mass murderers.

They only killed when it was necessary.

...

Looking back on what her family was, Ayano felt one of the few, bitter emotions she could feel at the time crawling in her skin:

Disgust.

She was disgusted at the lengths that her mother's side of the family tree had gone through.

All the killings that her mother had actively shown pride at whenever she told Ayano of them.

She thought that they were fit for _bedtime stories_.

...

Regardless of how emotionless Ayano was, she had to put up a mask of emotions to make sure she didn't stand out in a bad way at school.

She couldn't feel pain, but she _did_ feel the great _inconvenience_ it was whenever she had gotten bullied for being a 'freak'.

And, no matter who you are, everyone likes playing games, especially when it's against people who typically lose.

Of course she had ended up as friends with Kuu Dere, the other emotionless girl that went to her school, but even though she wasn't sure how she became friends with Midori Gurin (uuuu-), she... felt a spark of enjoyment around her.

Not enough to convince her that the annoying green girl was her Senpai, though. That was just plain ridiculous.

She dreamed about what her Senpai would look like, on many of her nights.

Not too special, something quite bland and basic.

Someone that only she could see the true beauty of.

So far, on this first day of school, she hadn't met anyone that fit those criteria. They all stood out in their own ways, or blended in with their clubs.

And, no matter what, she highly doubted that it would be a female. After all, none of her family tree wanted to be with anyone else other than their Senpai.

And back then, technology didn't allow lesbian pregnancy. Nowadays that was different, but none of her parents would be able to be born if they had female Senpais.

And once again, she doubted that she was all too different.

Well, aside from her distaste for murder that is.

Even then, she only had a distaste for it because it sounded inconvenient to clean up.

Perhaps that would change when she met her Senpai. Hopefully not.

...

* * *

Ayano was so caught up in her own thoughts, that she failed to realise that she had bumped into someone else, and hard, until she was lying on the floor, having been knocked down by someone.

"Oh! Are you ok? That looked like it hurt!"

Yeah, sure, Captain Obvious, whatever you say...

She looked up at the one who had knocked her down, ready to berate him (because that was a very typical male voice) for bumping into her.

Her words died in her mouth, giving way to a burst of life within her entire body.

This was him! Senpai! Her heart beat faster and faster, the world got brighter and more vibrant, and she was filled with DETE- nah, EXCITEMENT. Devotion. Energy. And yeah, determination too.

This was the one she had to be with. Well... she couldn't exactly see him, it was more like she could _feel_ him.

His very presence glowed with an overwhelming pink, and it was coming towards her... slower than what she expected.

She felt more in control of herself all of a sudden, and tried to concentrate on what he was saying:

"...here, take my hand, I'll help you get up..."

Oh, this was brilliant! Perfect! She was touching his hand as well! Oh... right.

She lifted her arm off of the floor, noticing that it took much more time than usual, the usual she had established in all of those _inconvenient_ times that she had been bullied, pushed down as if it would make her go back into the ground like the lifeless zombie she was or whatever they had said.

Yet, she persisted, and their hands touched for the very first time, and then he was pulling her up off the floor, apologising for all that he had done wrong to her just then.

But in her eyes, he had done nothing wrong. He had done _everything_ right, just by existing. Just by happening to bump into her at this time.

She felt like this was a dream, and yet at the same time, knew that none of her dreams had been as vivid as this one.

If this was a dream, then when she woke up, she would immediately note down everything that had happened to the letter, and save it forever, because she wanted to remember this rush of humanity that had surged within her.

"I'm sorry for delaying you, I was just in a hurry to get to lessons and wasn't looking where I was going, I don't want to be late!"

Neither did Ayano, actually. She had made sure to keep her track record of always being early to class, and always doing quite a bit above average every time.

Senpai was a smart boy, naturally he would love a smart girl. And it was easier to convince a... _less intelligent_ boy to fall in love with you if you were smart. She had to be ready for any Senpai, since she had had no idea who he could be.

But this boy... he was generic. Average, even.

Ayano watched as he disappeared around the corner of the corridor, the feelings fading from her the minute he was no longer by her side.

The effects of his presence, however, remained burned into her memory.

She needed him.

And, as she would make him realise:

He needed her.

She just needed to convince him so.

She just kept on standing there at the corner of the corridors on floor two, the first floor off of the ground. The floor that was one above the Ground floor.

Sidetracked by all of this, she then realised what she had been doing all this time: going to class.

She hurried to class, thankfully being an entire minute early. She took her seat between the fancily-dressed girl with the spray tan, the popular one that she knew was actually a bully, responsible for the Delinquents being... well, delinquents, and a girl who was of a similar danger level to all of said delinquents combined: Raibaru Fumetsu, the former leader of the Martial Arts Club. She knew that the cutesy orange-pigtailed girl was still very much a threat if you got on her bad side, but fortunately for her, Ayano had no plans on getting anywhere near that bad side.

Ayano and Raibaru were actually on good terms with each other, on a first-name basis and all.

But right now, she was too busy talking to her new friend, Osana Najimi.

Ayano had been keeping tabs on everyone, and making various friends around the school, so that when the day that she met her Senpai came, she could much more easily get him on her side without having to resort to violence.

She knew many of the girls and boys around the school, some as friends like Midori and Kuu, and others that she just knew the names of, like Osana, right here.

Since she wasn't distracted by emotions, she could see right through whatever they did to hide their true personality, instead seeing them for who they truly were.

Like how the other girl next to her was a bully, and looked for the dirt in people's pasts.

And how Raibaru didn't particularly like being the strongest girl in the school (which... she had seen a few that rivalled her for that title), and instead wanted to just be a girly girl, but also felt like she had to be strong no matter what.

She was quite Protective of her friends.

Ayano quickly simulated in her head what would happen if she tried to kill Osana, purely hypothetically.

Nope.

Her arms would never recover from that.

And she'd be in jail, too, if not worse.

That's why it was hypothetical, and just a simulation.

The two turned around suddenly, but not towards her. She instantly recognised what this meant and faced the front of the classroom, too.

* * *

Class was boring, as usual. She had read ahead in order to increase her grades even further, and so she didn't have any trouble completing all the work that was asked of her.

As a result, she was able to sit back, relax, and think about Senpai.

Oh. Right.

How in ~~(za warudo!)~~ the world had she forgotten about him?!

Well, she had been quite absorbed in her school work, but... still.

Well, she went over all that she knew about him:

She had only met him today, for a total of about one minute, but due to some time-slowing effect, it had felt like much more than that.

He was average, or about as average as one can get in a school full of multi-coloured hairs and eyes, spray-tanned bullies, Edgy Delinquents, The Student Council, and all of the various members of the many many clubs.

...Wow, when you put it that way, he actually does stand out, quite a bit, simply by the virtue of him not standing out at all.

Messy, short black hair, grey eyes, a concern for those who were vulnerable...

Wow, such desireable traits to find in a fellow human being!

...but, seriously, she hardly knew anything about him. Not what he likes, who he was friends with, hell, not even his name!

"Taro Yamada"

Oh, right. He had given his name, but she had entirely missed that out the first time round.

He was a third-year student, but she didn't know which class. Guess she'd have to go up there and find out herself.

Stalking was acceptable by her standards.

Killing, even if it was for her Senpai, wasn't quite on the table as an option yet.

...did anyone else have a crush on him? Oh, whatever!

Enough with the hypotheticals, you can just stalk him later! Besides, you're making him out to be a much better person than he probably is, Ayano!

...she wasn't quite sure where that came from, but she agreed with... her inner conscience, she guessed. Not that it mattered.

Well, she had nothing better to do. She was bored, and that boredom threatened to consume her whole.

Fortunately, when she looked at the time, it was almost time to go to break. More specifically, it was 12:58 PM...

Idly, she wondered why it went: 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM, 1 PM, etc, and at midnight went: 10 PM, 11 PM, 12 AM, 1 AM etc. She guessed it was just for "coNvEnieNcE" according to whoever had made it.

But according to any sane and reasonable person who saw this and looked at it with more than a passing glance, there was no convenience to it. It was stupid to say so, when it was so obviously wrong.

Why did it go like that, anyways? Who made it go like that, who had decided, "hmmm, yes, this timing system made to reduce confusion of what time means could _definitely_ do with adding some confusion as to what time means. Hmmm yes I am very smart."

...Midori's influence was rubbing off on her. She was asking pointless, meaningless questions that had no impact on anything.

Well, at the very least, there were two things she did better than the green green girl in this regard:

First of all, it was a legitimate, valid question that had a meaning, no matter what her conscience said.

And second of all, it had been all in her head, the question, distracting her mind for a minute or two, but not so much that she missed the end of the lesson.

Thank God that the lesson was over, or else she would have started to go insane!

Alright, time to stalk Senpai, in a non-insane and suicidal way.

That is, be stealthy about it. Don't let anyone see you do it, especially not Senpai - Taro, himself.

Suddenly, she felt like she was being followed by a dangerous force.

She turned around.

Oh. Why was Raibaru following her?

Then Ayano looked to Raibaru's side, at Raibaru's friend. Oh. Right.

The Tsundere herself, Osana Najimi, had been leading the way, but when Raibaru stopped, she stopped too.

And turned to look at Ayano, herself.

Well, this was inconvenient, but she had no choice but to talk to them, since otherwise, her friendship with Raibaru may start to fade.

Osana broke the awkward tension that Ayano could not feel in the air, by faux-angrily yelling at her:

"Where are YOU going?"

Ayano decided to tell... half of the truth. She could lie, very easily so, but she preferred truth whenever possible. Less loose ends that someone might trip over and break her delicately-crafted mask with:

"I'm going upstairs, to the rooftop, to meet a friend of mine."

Truth be told, Taro wasn't her friend... yet, and she kind of guessed that he'd be on the rooftop. He seemed like a loner, and they usually ate lunch on the rooftop, whilst club members usually ate in their club rooms.

He didn't have any identifying accessories that denoted his joining of a club, so that was struck right out.

Osana, keeping in line with her being a Tsundere, acted like she was mad at Ayano for stealing her idea or whatever, but she could clearly see in those eyes, the very human emotion of concern.

"Ugh! You're getting in my way, I'm trying to go to the rooftop to meet my baka of a friend!"

Ah yes, "baka", the most stereotypical of all Tsundere words in the dictionary of Tsundere words.

Ayano couldn't really care about who Osana's friend was, and yet found herself asking:

"Who are you talking about?"

And that just seemed to make Osana even more angry, this time for real.

"Ugh, my childhood friend, Taro! He always keeps me waiting whenever I tell him to do anything! And..." at this her anger seemed to fade into a frustration at Taro, who Ayano was quick to pin down as Her Senpai, "He just... ugh! He's such a dummy, never knowing what I'm trying to say! It's like he's got a hearing problem or something! Baka!"

Fortunately for her, Ayano didn't have a hearing problem, or any mental problems at all, besides of course, her emotionlessness, but that was at times quite a benefit to her.

She quickly deduced that it was strategically best for her if she tried to become friends with Osana. If she turned out not to have a crush on Taro-Senpai, which she got the sneaking suspicion she did, then it would help her get closer to him.

And if she DID have a crush on him, which of course turned out to be true later on, it would still be good to be friends with Osana, so that Osana would listen to her when she told her about other people than Taro, who would be a much better fit for Osana than Taro ever could.

Speak, or apparently even think, of the Devil, and he, or in this case, she, would arrive. There was someone who was a waaaay better fit for Osana right in front of her eyes, trying to get the two girls' attention.

"Well, we can't go and meet our friends if we just stand around here!", said the Indestructible Rival, in her typical cutesy tone that you couldn't say no to.

And neither of the two said no to her. In fact, they didn't say anything, they both just turned towards the stairs and walked that way, Raibaru catching up to her obvious crush Osana, and walking beside her.

They quickly exchanged names, just for convenience's sake, since they were likely to meet again.

So as to not form a ~~(separatist)~~ blockade of the entire corridor, Ayano ended up walking behind them, for about five seconds, before quickly realising just how slow they were walking.

She instead ran past and way ahead of them, forgetting that this was **exactly** what had happened when she had met Taro-Senpai, just with the roles reversed.

But, Fate, Doom, Domtrovives, whatever god of Time or Fate or whatever, they had decided not to have this event happen again.

Ayano kept her eyes ahead of herself as she ran, and as such saw Taro waiting at the top of the stairs, where it turned into the entrance to the rooftop.

Oh.

...Well.

This was going to be awkward...

Taro looked at her in recognition:

"You're the girl I bumped into by mistake back then, aren't you?" he said, concern slipping into his voice as he looked at the no-longer-as-vulnerable girl, still seeing her as the girl that had fallen down when he bumped into her.

Ayano flushed up in embarrasment, not knowing what to say...

Fortunately, or not, depending on who you ask, Osana and Raibaru materialised right there and then. Or at least, it seemed like they did to the very distracted duo that were standing there, one awed by the other, the other creeped out by the one's awe.

"HEY!"

This extremely Tsundere shout broke both of them out of... whatever in God's name happened right there.

Ayano turned to face Osana, glad that she was stopping her from being creepy in front of Senpai and then having to kill everyone and then hers-

What the actual _fuck_ was up with her thoughts sometimes?

Her inner monologue was broken again by the "angry" tsundere actually using her brain, surprisingly enough.

"Wait... Ayano, is _he_ your 'friend of yours'?!"

Or perhaps that anger was genuine. Who knows.

"Taro, since when was she your friend?"

To everyone's surprise, however, Raibaru exists. And she also has a brain.

"Well, since we bumped into each other I guess." chuckled Taro-Senpai, not at all nervous! Not at all!

Raibaru nodded, and Osana grumbled childishly.

Ayano, however, decided to take advantage of this situation:

"Well, is he your friend, the one you called a 'baka' and a 'dummy'?", hoping that Taro-Senpai would feel insulted, and Osana would get defensive.

But, nope! He just... shrugged it off like it was an inside joke that he heard enough times to still be funny after all this time.

"She calls me that about twice every time we meet, it doesn't mean anything.", he said, clearly oblivious to the character stereotype that Osana was quite clearly and intentionally embodying, the one that would call their crush 'baka' in order to shallowly hide their crush on them. Y'know, Tsundere.

Ayano was getting a slight bit tired at all the obvious crushes and tropes surrounding her. This school was pretty basic when you looked even a single layer deep into it. Just like many things.

Once again, Raibaru was acting as a voice of reason, and clearly one that was used to being ignored, if it made what they said when they were heard much more profound:

"Well, let's all eat lunch together! That way we can all get to know each other even better!" And also once again, her cheery attitude shone through. She was, in a way, just as childish as Osana, but where Osana was the bad side of childishness, Raibaru was its good side.

It was sooooooo clear that they were... dare she say it? MADE FOR EACH OTHER.

It would be easy to get them together, especially since she was already friends with Raibaru.

So, the four of them... quadrio? Nah, the group of them went to one of the benches on the rooftop and sat down to have lunch together.

Ayano learned quite a bit about all three of them, whilst they hardly got to know anything about Ayano, except that she was also friends with Midori-

"Ugh, that girl, she's so annoying! Always asking stupid questions like she's five!", said Osana, as if she herself was not just as childish, too, just in a different way.

-and Kuu Dere-

"Makes sense, you're both emotionless." Ah yes, Taro-Senpai, you have officially been promoted to the rank of Captain! Now rename yourself to Obvious. Or Oblivious, judging how you react to Osana all the time.

-and that she loves playing modded Terraria, especially Calamity-

"What's so good about a stupid 2D block game?!"

...

Something about that threw Ayano into a rage, but it was quickly surpressed.

"It's a game that's mostly centred around fighting bosses, and that mod in particular doubles the total amount of bosses."

Raibaru butted in with some surprising knowledge of the matter:

"Say whatever you want, Osana, but Calamity's Soundtrack is great! You've got to listen to it sometime!"

Aaaaand Osana seems like she's about to turn into ~~(sans undertale)~~ a Jpop Stan riiiight now!:

"No thanks, I'm sticking to J-pop and J-rock."

Taro also butted in with surprisingly little knowledge of the matter:

"Isn't 'Calamity' a type of disaster?"

Captain Obvious... actually he's staying at his current rank.

"Of course it is, baka! You should know this since you're always reading books whenever you're alone!"

Suffice it to say, this was quite a valuable event to Ayano. Such a shame that they had to go back to class.

Ayano expected class to just be as boring as ever, but Raibaru and Osana both decided to group up with her to help complete the activity.

Ayano used this opportunity to slip hints to both girls that the other liked her, but where Osana was Oblivious, Raibaru was Suspicious.

Well, at least she caught the hints that the two liked each other. Oh wait, of course she caught those hints, she herself was the one with the crush - Osana, the one who played around with Taro-Senpai for being Oblivious, well, yeah. It's ironic. She could call out others for failures of their awareness, but not herself.

Anyways, besides that, there wasn't really much else that happened. The lesson went by like the wind, yellow and quick as it always has been, and always will be. Like Death, but less "evil".

The trio of girls exited class together, having all become friends with each other, but nothing more. Definitely nothing more.

They all went down to their lockers to change shoes, and then remaining as a group, walked to one of the cherry trees outside of the school gates, to wait for Taro-Senpai, so they could go home together.

It took him a while, so much so that him being a third-year and an entire floor of the building away from them definitely was not nearly enough to explain why he was so late. Ayano suddenly understood everything - well, at least why Osana always says he always keeps her waiting, when she was the one that was late the only other time Ayano had seen her talking with Taro-Senpai.

"Sorry I'm late again, I was checking out the clubs. But none of them seem interesting right now."

"That's ok! You can stay clubless, and hang out with us even more!" Oh Raibaru, you shine like a beacon of light, in a pit of oblivious idiots.

...not that Ayano had a crush on Raibaru, though. She mentally debated whether it was more stupid to think Midori was her Senpai, or that Raibaru was her Senpai. In the end, team... Oka Ruto?? Ok then. That definitely happened.

The group walked home, casually conversing yet again. Ayano tuned out anything that wasn't relevant to her or her goals in any way, instead thinking about how easy it was going to be to turn Osana's attention towards Raibaru.

She just hoped that Osana was Bi.

Then again, isn't everyone?

Oh brilliant, another mental debate erupted, with Ayano herself, as well as Kuu and Midori being thrown in as obvious evidence that not everyone is Bi.

Brilliant, way to get her hopes down.

And she couldn't force Osana to be Bi. That thought got shot by a nuclear warhead, and it detonated right in its centre.

She stalked the two childhood friends to their homes, which were conveniently near where hers was, and closer to school, too. Good. Now she wasn't 'stalking', since they both knew she was there.

She said goodbye to both of them and went home, slightly giddy that she had gotten on Taro-Senpai's good side.

She was one step closer to having his presence forever!

And none of them realised, that all along, they had been watched...

* * *

Ayano lived alone.

Well, she did now, but she hadn't before.

Her parents had left a few days ago... for some reason. She didn't know why.

They had left her everything she needed to survive, and then a bit extra.

Well, there really wasn't much to do there, so she might as well maintain her cover as a gamer girl, like Midori.

A few weeks ago, Midori had introduced her to a game that had recently been ported to the SaikouStation 4: the 2D block game centered around fighting bosses: Terraria.

Apparently she herself had only heard of that because someone on Yancord with a weird name told her about it. Midori couldn't remember the name, but thought it was a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure reference or something. Something about Stands.

They had messaged her directly about Terraria and Calamity Mod, and she, being a naive, gullible green child with nothing better to do, had bought the game without caring who the heck that guy was.

Anyways, she had convinced Ayano to buy it, so she could play it with her too.

After defeating the Moon Lord a few times in multiplayer together, she had turned Ayano's attention towards its modded community, especially Calamity Mod.

Right now, the two girls were about halfway through their second playthrough of the newly updated mod, almost done with defeating the Astrum Aureus for the first time.

And it was quite easy for them, too, much easier than it had been to fight the namesake of the mod...'s clone.

Well, easy for Ayano, seeing as she was near full health and about to be able to finish the titanic machine off with the Adrenaline bar almost full.

Whereas Midori... was dead. In-game that is, not in real life. She wasn't _that_ devoted to games, otherwise she'd actually be good at them, and not have died five damn times to this boss.

The Aureus fell, empowering the Astral enemies.

And, possibly by coincidence, it was at this exact moment that Ayano's phone pinged.

Now, Ayano usually talked to her 'friends' by Yancord, or just didn't talk to them at all.

Nobody at school, as far as she knew, had her phone number.

The only people who did have her phone number, in fact, were her parents.

So, she assumed that it was them, and not someone else, that was texting her.

Well, she'd let greeny girl take the loot, then.

"I'll be right back, my parents want to know what I'm doing."

"Alright Yan-chan, just don't make me wait too long!" Ah, Midori, the comparisons between you and this Osana girl just keep on coming, don't they.

She powered down the SaikouStation 4, logged off of Yancord, took off her headphones and went to go look at her phone.

Hmm?

An unkown number had texted her, not her parents.

But...all they had done was leave a simple, unassuming,

_"Hey."_

Ayano was confused, how did anyone have her phone number? She hadn't given it to anyone, she'd remember if she had...

"Do I know you?"

Well, at the very least, she knew it wasn't just Midori pulling a prank on her... right?

_"I saw you stalking an upperclassman today."_

...Definitely not Midori. She can't keep her presence a secret for more than a few seconds.

Whoever this was, they had been stalking her themself.

And besides, she hadn't _really_ been stalking him, it just happened that he lived nearby, and the two were on good enough terms to go home together.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Well, clearly not, since they had stalked her, thus making them a hypocrite if they did.

_"No. I wanted to give you some information about the girl he was with."_

Information, huh? Ayano had a sneaking suspicion who this person was.

And hey, if they were, any information on Osana was good for her, it would help her matchmake the Tsundere with the Indestructible Rival she was so obviously made for.

_"Her name is Osana Najimi."_

_"She has a crush on him."_

No cigar, Sherlock, she'd already figured that one out. C'mon, give her something she didn't already know, it was obvious to anyone who had even the slightest idea what a tsundere was that she had that crush.

_"She believes in the myth about the cherry tree behind the school."_

Oh, that? Only Occult freaks and Lovestruck idiots believed in that.

...then again, Info-Chan was supposed to be a myth, too, and yet who else could Ayano be talking to?

"The myth that if you confess your love to someone underneath that tree on a Friday, they are guaranteed to accept your confession?"

Of course, even if she didn't believe it herself, she had to account for the possibility that her Senpai did, and thus, she knew of the myth.

And to be fair, her mother was living proof that it had worked at least once.

_"Correct."_

_"She's planning to confess to him next Friday."_

Well, that was convenient for her to know now, giving her a time limit of just five days.

"Why are you telling me this?"

She had to know the motivations of this person, no matter who they were. She wasn't just going to let herself be controlled by others, that was her job, not anyone else's.

_"I would be happy if something bad happened to Osana-chan."_

_"I think you might be the right person to give her what she deserves."_

What she deserves, huh? Well, someone's salty about something. Even more salty than Midori after losing a game or failing to beat a boss in any game.

She idly wondered what Osana could have even done to this person to make them want to see Osana... what exactly did they want to happen to Osana, anyways?

She wasn't quite sure if this really was Info-chan, after all. Guess she'd have to check...

"Who are you?"

_"I am the person nicknamed "Info-chan at school."_

Oh, right. Good, just checking. Wait a minute...

"I've heard rumours about you. You blackmail girls and sell panty shots to girls. Nobody knows your real name."

This girl was quite disgusting to her, as a concept, and yet as a tool, she could be very valuable to her...

_"The rumours are true."_

She could almost hear the smile in the other girl's message, there.

_"If you ever need a favour, text me a panty shot and I'll give you whatever support I can."_

Well then, what support could she give?

_"If you want to know personal information about anyone at our school, just send me a photograph of their face, and I'll tell you everything I know about them."_

Well, that was quite useful. After all, she herself only had basic knowledge on relatively few of the students around school, but with Info's help, she could know exactly who was and wasn't necessary for this plan.

And yet, at the same time, something felt... wrong, about being essentially a pawn to Info-chan. Whilst clearly they had similar goals, both centered around Osana, Info-chan was... Info-chan.

"You're disgsting."

_"You're a stalker."_

Really, Info? You couldn't choose anything better to drag her down with, to make yourself seem superior to her with?

Ayano thought she had established that she wasn't actually a stalker... but, then again, she pretty much was, huh.

Not that it mattered to her, and not that Info being disgusting seemed to matter to her, either.

_"If you want my help, text me. If you don't care, ignore me."_

That made things much easier. She could just take one side of this deal, the information, without needing the other side of the deal, the disgusting concept of taking panty shots of her fellow students.

_"You have one week until your precious Senpai belongs to Osana-chan."_

As if she could forget that.

_"I hope you make her suffer."_

'Well', Ayano thought to herself, 'I don't particularly want to make her suffer...'

She waited for any further messages, but none came.

Oh well, she had until Monday to actually respond to her.

She didn't have the contact details of either Osana or Taro, so she couldn't do anything that might get them falling out of love with each other.

She could spread rumours on Kaobook, but they would all just be baseless speculation that would get shot down easily by Raibaru.

Not to mention that this would also break many of her carefully-crafted friendships she had made. Especially Raibaru.

So, instead, she just went back to playing games with Midori.

She connected back to their Yancord Call.

"Alright, I'm back."

"Yay! So what did they ask?"

"..."

She decided, for the sake of-

Wait, no, Midori wasn't popular enough to spread this negativity about her, plus she was too dumb to care. Her reputation was not at risk, here.

"It wasn't my parents, it was some unknown number, texting me and pretending to be Info-chan."

Midori had nothing much to say about that, not questioning that someone was 'pretending' to be Info-chan, and instead being distracted by all the cool stuff they'd gotten from beating Aureus.

They continued to play the Calamity Mod for the rest of the day, both getting stuck at Duke Fishron. This would be a challenge...

...But it would be a challenge they'd have to deal with tomorrow.

Ayano ended the Yancord Call again, for the final time tonight, and went to bed as usual.

* * *

_Meanwhile, somewhere else, a certain red-themed person smiled._

_"Good. She will be useful..."_

_With the emotionless, yandere girl on her side, she could get rid of those who posed a threat to her._

_Starting off with the Tsundere girl that had dared defy her..._

* * *

_**Meanwhile, somewhere else entirely, another red-themed person smiled as well.** _

_**"I shouldn't be here. But rest assured, I am watching. I just won't make my presence known of."** _

* * *

**Simulated Love and Friendships: Unabridged Edition  
**

**By Padriac Zozzrian.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love how, even in an unfinished state, this prologue alone was a full 1913 words, which surpassed its "parent work" Astral Simulator, which has 3 chapters, by 5 words. Not much can be said. In five words or less. But what ever I guess.


	2. Chapter 2: A Possible Simulation of their Doom + Stalking... but Simulated!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayano has a nightmare, as does Raibaru.  
> Afterwards, Ayano cyberstalks the entire school, specifically Taro Yamada.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two half chapters in one!  
> Yes, not much can happen on a non-weekday day in this fanfic since Ayano doesn’t have any contact details of Osana or Taro, just Raibaru and the School’s social media presence.  
> And yet somehow this is still 4000 words... is this what "Zozzrian Power" really means?  
> As you can probably tell, I’m using “simulated”, and “simulation” in all of the titles of all the chapters. Deal with it, it’s a thing that I do.

**Chapter Two: Week Zero: Saturday:**

Week Zero, Saturday:

**A Possible Simulation of their Doom...**

**Ayano's POV:**

She had gone to sleep last night without much resistance from her mind, and in her dreams, Taro-Senpai was there.

Of course he was, he wasn't allowed to leave her side.

And yet, those dreams quickly turned into nightmares:

She saw Osana confessing her love to Taro under the mythical Cherry Tree, in all of her tsundere fashion.

Worse than having to deal with, listen to, even be in the presence of such an annoying, _unholy,_ _heretical_ creature such as that girl...

Taro didn't reject her, either.

He accepted the confession, and embraced Osana in what would otherwise be a Legendary Anime Moment...

But to Ayano?

She was paralysed at the mere thought of such an ending being possible.

Osana didn't deserve Taro-Senpai, she always trod down upon him whenever she could, no matter how much she may have loved him.

Being a Tsundere at all was an asshole move.

But this assholery was exemplified and empowered eternally by Ayano's perspective:

If Osana had Taro, Taro couldn't be her Senpai anymore. Taro couldn't be by her side always, Taro would be taken entirely by this undeserving... _child_.

And without Taro, Ayano couldn't feel.

No.

She could feel, but it wasn't positivity she could feel.

It was a Raw, Unfiltered **Hatred** towards the one who had taken her Senpai from her.

By removing the one thing tying her to the positive side of the world, Osana had thrown Ayano into the pit of negativity.

And amongst that negativity...

Was SNAP.

And so, in the dream, she grabbed a knife, and went to town on Osana.

She was an unstoppable force of nature, and she sliced that childish girl apart limb from limb, stabbing her everywhere that it hurt, not stopping until she was covered in the putrid blood of her enemy.

And then, only then, did her focus shift.

To Taro.

He had just stood there, and watched, as the girl he thought was his friend, had ran at his childhood friend, and newly-known lover, and ripped her apart.

And he did nothing, paralysed in not just fear, but utter Horror at the sight before him, if it could even be called a sight.

He was doomed anyway. That just made it much easier for her.

She stood up from the mess that had once been a girl, and faced him.

The emotion in her eyes could not be described properly, even in six thousand words, but it was one of heartbreak, mixed in with hatred, mixed in with love.

And it was with love that dream-Ayano walked over to him, knowing that he could never love her after this.

Knowing that she could never be lovable after what she had done.

Knowing that she could never have him...

And so...

"If I can't have you..."

She grabbed his entire body with ease, placing a firm kiss upon his lips, one final time.

As she raised the knife above her body, and stabbed down HARD. Right through his heart, killing him instantly, or at least, if he was alive, it would be only to hear her last words:

"No one can."

With that, there was nothing else to say, only to do.

She eyed the knife in her hand, and stabbed her own heart, ending the dream right there and then.

However, whatever Deity controlled people's dreams did not seem to be satisfied with just that.

No, instead, Ayano found herself standing in front of the School, going about what seemed to be a typical school day.

But she could not control her body.

Whoever did, had her run into the school, straight towards the Occult Club, grabbing the knife out of the skull in a not-so-careful way that made it entirely collapse in on itself.

Wow, they must be sloppy. But they didn't care, so she only got to saw the beginning of that collapse before she was forced to run out of there.

At least they had the know-how to sneak it into her skirt pocket - since when did her skirt have pockets?

...wait, she remembered just then that her mother had made for her. She still had it lying around somewhere, so she might as well use it on Monday.

...which, she guessed this was, huh. So a dream about the future told her to make a decision which lead to the dream being possible? Wasn't that a type of paradox?

Regardless, from the way that this force had made her take a knife, she could tell, clear as day, what was to happen next.

Yep, just as she thought. This force was making her eliminate Osana, so that she couldn't steal her Senpai, the consequences of which were shown in the previous dream - er, nightmare.

And of course, being so basic, it made her run back towards the entrance to the school, where Taro had left, and Osana was alone.

Ayano knew that, in fact, Osana was not alone. It'd be too convenient if she was.

The dream-force made her dream self go right up to Osana, and before she could call her a "Baka" and demand to know why she was running up to her-

She stabbed the defenceless tsundere girl right through the heart, ignoring the much better target that was the throat.

Well, it didn't matter either way, since Raibaru didn't just have ears that clearly and soundly heard the dying roar- roar? No, it was more of a scream, typical of one who knew they were doomed.

A scream for help, that echoed right towards Raibaru.

Not that she needed to hear that, since... well, she had eyes.

She had obviously seen 'Ayano' run up to her best friend / girlfriend, and stab her right through the heart without any provoking.

And even if there had been any provoking, any reason for such a kill, the Justice-minded Indestructible Rival wouldn't see it as a valid one.

"What are you doing?!"

Well, looks like Taro had a rival for the title of Most Oblivious Individual.

...Look, it was easier to joke about it than just watch it happen.

Even if it was just a dream, it was entirely possible, even if she didn't get her control over her body and actions taken away from her and given to a simpleton.

After all, even she could make mistakes, and indeed she had made a few mistakes, even within the past day.

"STOP!!"

All the girliness that Raibaru had so delicately built up, all signs that she had wanted not to be a Martial Arts Master, but instead a normal, friendly girl, disappeared, vanishing without a trace.

Her true nature emerged, the nature that she didn't like, and yet could not deny, especially at a time like this.

She was no longer Raibaru Fumetsu, the friendly girl she had known, but instead, the Indestructible Rival. A force of nature, unparalelled in their power.

And she was running right at dream-Ayano.

Well, her arms might be syncronising their death watches, if they could move that is.

But instead, they had been locked in place, as if she was trying to lift her hands in the universal sign for surrender, but got stopped halfway.

Whatever dream force forced her to try to stab this Rival, only for that arm to be caught, and locked in place tight by the Rival's invincible strength.

And the other arm was grabbed with just as much force, too.

Then, both arms got Karate Chopped with more than enough force to permanently neutralise them for good, and her body was twisted downwards onto the ground, with the elbows pulled straight once again for good measure.

So now, she was on the ground, with the Indestructible Rival right on top of her, pressing her legs down on her as well in a one-person arrest.

Just like the simulations.

That dream-force was trying to get her to SNAP again...

And yet...

"Yan-chan!"

Hmm? So she thinks she can taunt Ayano with that nickname, when there were less than negative ten reasons to do so?

"Yan-chan!!"

God, she sounded kind of like Midori with that repetitive name-shouting, but even more annoying, since she had no reason to do so!

"Yan-chan please, wake up!"

And she didn't even have a question for her to easily answer, either, just some nonsense about waking up.

She was quite clearly unable to control her dreams, Raibaru-chan, do you really think that-

"Yan-chan please, this isn't who you are!!!"

...She was right about that, considering the presence of that force thing.

Ugh, it was still trying to get her to SNAP, despite clearly being pinned down by someone that could very easily oppose such a thing.

"Ayano, wake up! Don't let this thing control you! I know what you're like, this isn't you!"

Well, one thing was right there, besides the controlling thing, and that was that this wasn't like her.

If she did decide to kill someone, she wouldn't be so sloppy about it, and she wouldn't try to go right after someone that was under the watchful guardianship of the Indestructible Rival.

"WAKE UP!"

And then, she sat up, instantly awake.

And would have been about three entire hours late for school, if this had been a school day, which it was not.

Instead of it being a day where she had a clear and valid excuse to go and meet up with Taro-Senpai, and carry out her plans to make Osana and Raibaru fall in love, it was a day to make those plans.

And the first step of making a plan was to gather intel.

So, since she was awake, she went ahead and went over to her computer, and turned it on.

As the computer turned on, she knew exactly what she would do today: Stalk Taro-Senpai, Osana and Raibaru online to know them and their interests even further.

And, while she was at it, might as well check up on what was happening around school, too.

Like, if there was an upcoming couples event, she would need to know so she could invite Taro-Senpai and go with him. That'd solidify their relationship for sure.

Or really, any other type of event, like, say if the Drama Club was performing a play, she'd want to be with Taro-Senpai for that. Really, any kind of event was another opportunity for her to get closer to her Senpai.

Or, rather, him closer to her.

And there were other people that may be able to help her with this, too.

Even though she knew a lot of the people around the school, she didn't quite know _everyone_ , and though it might be unnecessary to know every last detail about them, she didn't have nearly enough time for that, she did know that Fate, or Doom or whatever, had a... karmatic way of making sure that the people you don't expect to be important, actually end up being the most important.

Take, for example, Osana, or even Taro.

When she didn't know that Taro was to be her Senpai, she didn't even achknowledge his existence, ignoring him as an unimportant boy that she never even saw anyways.

Osana was much the same: Despite being in her class, Ayano hadn't really known that she existed, either. Just another student in the class.

Just another flat character, entirely one-dimensional.

But now?

She saw the second dimension of them.

Taro-Senpai had opened her eyes to an entirely new dimension of existence, an entirely different, far better way of living her life, and properly this time!

...She'd gotten distracted, and was caught by surprise when the notifications for Yancord had rolled in.

Huh. Raibaru had messaged her. Hmmm...

...hmm?! What?!

IndestructibleCute

-This is the start of your legendary conversation with IndestructibleCute.

_"Yan-chan, I just had a terrible dream!"_

_"And it was so real it haunts me...!"_

_"You ran out of school and killed Osana!"_

_"Please promise me you won't do that, ever!"_

_"I know it sounds ridiculous, but what that version of you did really creeped me out...!"_

"Don't worry, I value my arms more than I value getting Osana away from me."

"I had the same dream as you, you sounded worried towards the end..."

In short, nothing much came of the fact that Ayano and Raibaru had shared the exact same dream.

Ayano promised to not let the ~~dream~~ nightmare come true, and joked about it, until Raibaru was sufficiently distracted.

Then she turned the subject towards Raibaru's crush.

"You have a crush on Osana Najimi."

_"Is it that obvious?"_

"Only to those observant, meaning anyone who isn't either Osana or Taro."

_"Heh, true."_

_"Yes, I have a crush on Osana, she's pretty cute and adorable once you get past that angry mask she puts up."_

"Typical tsundere..."

_“Well that’s just rude!”_

”Well, you might be able to show her she doesn’t need to be tsundere at all.”

”You’re a good fit for her, balancing out the bad side of her perfectly. I have no doubt you can enhance her good side too.”

_“Hopefully...”_

”I ship it.”

_”Of course you do.”_

_”Oh! On the topic of crushes, don’t you have a crush on her best friend Taro?”_

“Indeed, but Osana does too...”

_”I can kinda see why a dream version of you would do that then... you told me that your mother only felt love for one person, and would kill for him...”_

”I don’t want to be like my mother. Killing is wrong, under any circumstances, for any reason. It’s a waste of perfectly good human lives.”

_”So Taro is your Senpai, the one you’d do anything for?”_

”The answer is yes, of course.”

_”And Osana has a crush on him too...”_

”And you have a crush on Osana.”

_”Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”_

”Of course. An alliance between us would be most beneficial, so that we can both get the person of our dreams.”

_”... I haven’t quite dreamt of Osana yet, but ok. I agree to this alliance.”_

The two of them proceeded to talk in the Yancord chat room for a few more hours, covering all of Osana’s likes and dislikes, making sure that Raibaru would seem like, and indeed be, the perfect girl in Osana’s eyes.

Soon, however, Raibaru had to log out of Yancord, for reasons Ayano couldn’t care less about.

Raibaru was a tool to be used, and she had been used well. She let go of the tool to do its own thing, aaand the metaphor broke down.

It didn’t really matter what Raibaru did now, it wouldn’t negatively effect Ayano in any way.  
...  
So now, she could focus on what she had planned to do today and tomorrow: cyberstalk Osana and Taro, and keep an eye out for anything happening at school that might be of use to her.

But first, it was time to have lunch, and take a shower, too.

* * *

**Stalking...but Simulated.**

Having had lunch and showered, she went back up to her room, back onto her computer.

And on her computer, Yancord opened up, with that classic jingle that indicated someone wanted to talk to her.

”Someone” being Midori, of course.

Instead of listening to the green gamer girl gush great gruesome gibs about how another game that she’d found or how Ayano “needed” to help her play the Calamity Mod, she just denied the call, and send her a quick:

”I’m busy.”

And went back to what she had planned to do: cyberstalk Taro, Osana and Raibaru.

But first, she might as well check up on school events, so she won’t miss out on something like a party of any kind, any couples event basically.

Well, the school website didn’t say anything about any of such events happening for the next 12 weeks, so she turned her attention elsewhere.

That being the Student Body of the school.

She could vaguely recall hearing from people’s idle gossip that some of the Club Leaders weren’t at school on Friday, and a few glad mutterings that the leader of the Delinquents was also absent.

This could be useful to her, she argued mentally, not wanting to admit that her boredom was driving her to do unnecessary tasks, which if she followed the logic through, would include playing with Midori.

So, Kaobook.

First, she looked up all the users that were in the school’s group, and skimmed through their statuses.

Most students’ statuses had no real meaning to them, in her eyes at least, but she did note that Oka’s said “In hospital”. Huh. What could have possibly happened to her for her to end up in hospital?

Well... she didn’t admit it often, but Ayano was slightly obsessed with the Occult, knowing of many myths and legends and demons and rituals and all that stuff. She guessed Oka was there due to an infection after cutting herself for a ritual.

That, or she cut herself for... other reasons...

Ayano and Oka were slightly closer friends than her and Raibaru, if only because the two understood each other better.

She knew of Oka’s self-hatred, and that it made up much of her drive to study the Occult, to control it for her own use, because then she’d feel like she actually meant something...

Well, it made sense that she’d be in hospital for those reasons. She wouldn’t get any better information on the situation elsewhere because the Occult Club, like the Delinquents once had been, were outcasts within the school, targets for bullying, seen as weak. They’d especially get bullied on social media, due to the disconnection that social media gave, one that rivalled Ayano’s natural disconnection.

And also, a lot of them didn’t use social media that often, especially not for anything Ayano could use to track them with, for the exact same reason: bullies.

None of this mattered to Ayano, though. She had to get back on track, see who else hadn't been in school on Friday.

Soon, she’d compiled a list of those people:

Amai Odayaka, the leader of the Cooking Club. She’d been absent because she had gone on some show to show off her skill at cooking.

Ayano could tell, just at a glance at Amai’s competition’s social medias, that it would be, heh, a cakewalk for the sweet girl, one that would bring more legitimacy to Akademi High.

...which, could be a bad thing, as that could lead to more students being there, more witnesses to see her murd- wait, no, she wasn’t a murderer! And besides, Akademi High would take like ten whole weeks to fully process and accept the new students, even one-at-a-time.  
So yeah, she had no problems with Amai doing this. Apparently she’d be back after this week ended.

Next!

Then there was Kizana Sunobu, leader of the Drama Club.

She was a snobbish one, and everyone knew it, but they also admitted that she had talent whilst on the stage and in the script-writing area. Which, as far as Ayano could tell, was where she was right now, stuck at home with a severe case of something... possibly depression, but it’d have to be depression on such a scale to rival Oka’s for her to just skip out an entire day of school.

Her parents wouldn’t care, since they were super rich. Not as rich as Saikou Corp., but close enough for the middle class Ayano to not see any difference.

So they just let their daughter do anything she wanted, no wonder she was a spoilt brat. Well, no need to keep that tab open any longer...

Oka was absent for at least two, maybe even three weeks, due to an infection caused by 'open wounds on her arms. Possibly self-inflicted.'

What kind of hospital kept their records in plain sight of the General Public? Whatever, at least she wasn’t going to get in her way...

Asu Rito, leader of the Sports Club, was currently at a major sporting event, just like how Amai was, except this event was much bigger than a cooking event and clearly took much more energy, time and devotion to do. Good for her.

Osoro Shidesu, leader of the Delinquents ~~(at Akademi High, left her house late in the morn-)~~ was temporarily suspended from school due to an attack upon multiple students. Of course, those students were the five Bullies, as well as two others that were bystanders, who tried to stand up to one of the most dangerous students, if not the most dangerous student at the school. They clearly deserved it.  
This had happened whilst Ayano had been awkwardly talking amongst her little group of “friends” at lunchtime, and she sighed in retrospect at not being there to see it. Perhaps Info-chan could give her the footage later on.

Anyways, that had gotten Osoro suspended for a full _seven weeks_ , so she was out of the picture.

And the new president of the Student Council, Megami Saikou, who was also the heiress to Saikau Corp, and perhaps even more dangerous than Osoro was, was also absent.  
Well, she had made herself present via some Saikou-brand Laptops, because of course they were Saikou-brand, but she wasn’t _physically_ present, which reduced the danger at school quite drastically.

Aside from those six girls, (who, of course, became much greater threats afterwards) nobody was absent. Every one of the clubs was up and running, and only one of the Teachers was due for a substitution soon.

Time to stalk Taro-Senpai and his not-fated-to-be-with-him best friend!

...

Immediately after clicking on Taro-Senpai’s social media, she found out that he had a younger sister, Hanako. She was cute, even in the eyes of the straight Ayano, but she could also see that this girl could be an obstacle.

Because, in every one of Taro-Senpai’s pictures that featured her, she was clinging to him, or hovering around him, desperately trying to stay with him, even if he and his friends - he was friends with Budo? Ok. - didn’t want her there.

Well, at least she didn’t go to Akademi High with him... oh wait, the girl was applying to do exactly such a thing.

Yeah. She’d be an obstacle, but by that point Ayano hoped she would be close enough to Taro-Senpai for him to let her deal with his sister. Especially since that transfer was only going to happen in eight weeks time...

Wait, isn’t that...

She cross-referenced Hanako’s Transfer Time with Osoro’s Unsuspension Time, and to her relief, Hanako's came the week after Osoro's first week back. Better to have a delinquent girl roam the school at no real risk to you, unless you piss her off, than to have that little obstacle girl be in your way.

Ugh. Something about Hanako gave Ayano a strong sense of disgust. Perhaps it was due to the girl’s proximity and possessiveness of her Taro-Senpai. Or perhaps there were... _undertones_ to the two siblings’ relationship... she hoped not. It didn’t seem that Taro-Senpai had any part in that, but Hanako-chan was an unknown.  
Whatever, she’d deal with her later.

Oh, and of course Osana appeared in a few of Taro-Senpai’s image posts too, sometimes with Hanako-chan there too. It was clear in those pictures that Hanako-chan accepted Osana being just as close to Taro-Senpai as she was.

That child... she was only two years younger than Taro, yet looked like she needed him like he was a much older older brother. Or... something else....

Cosmic Disgust has not been reached yet, but the disgust was approaching that level pretty quickly. Best to not watch any more, she already had enough info on both Taro-Senpai and Osana, and there really had been no need to stalk Raibaru after all.

So now it was time to just mess around with Gurinuuuuuu420 in a 2D modded game about fighting deities and being badass.

She logged back into Yancord, and got bombarded with notifications and pings from the green gamer girl gruesomely guessing grand gifting gibs- great gadzooks! That was a lot of notifications, even by the impatient standards of that girl who had all the time in the world to talk to her “best” (only) friend.

Well, except Kuu, who didn’t care to play anything with her, and the entire Gaming Club, who:

Pippi and Ryoto had entirely different tastes in games, not liking those violent games like Calamity Mod and even Vanilla Terraria, instead sticking to Rhythm games.

Mai was more into games about waifus, and deemed the Brimstone Elemental and Siren to be an “affront to waifu-kind”. Whatever that meant.

Gema was too busy. That's really all there is to say on that matter.

So, by process of elimination, Ayano was the only one that Midori could even play Calamity Mod with, and since they were in multiplayer and Gurinuuuuuu was bad at fighting bosses, she couldn’t make any progress unless Ayano was there.

So, yeah, she had done nothing but play the modded game, email “YandereDev”, “Zed Lad”, whoever those were, and the entire Calamity Mod Developer Team, and DM DOKURO, depsite him no longer being part of the mod's team, AND ping Ayano to try to get her to play with her.

All whilst Ayano had been “busy” cyberstalking the students of Akademi High, and Taro-Senpai himself.

Yeah, that gaming had waited long enough.  
Before she let Midori know of her presence and newfound willingness to play, she looked up a guide to defeating Death Mode Master Mode Duke Fishron in Defiled Mode. Perhaps that was why Gurinuuuuuu420 was so bad at playing video games - she always chose the highest difficulty, and on top of that, some of the extra challenges that were entirely unnecessary...

The page with the guide to beating the boss loaded... and...  
...that was it? It was that easy? Huh. Ok. Time to get her game on, go play!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I initially thought this wouldn't be long enough to fulfill my apparently-existant-now quota of "3000 words per chapter", but it is, so here it is.  
> Apparently I started working on this on the sixth...?  
> Oh my goodness this is getting out of hand...  
> Well, see you next week!


	3. Chapter 3: Simulated Alliance of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayano has allied with Raibaru and Info-Chan to help her get Osana away from Taro-Senpai.  
> This means, however, she has to hold up her side of the alliance, but that's child's play to her...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little meme that I accidentally posted it in an incomplete form on 13/05/2020 but nobody saw that because I was quick to back it up and delete the posted work and start a new draft.  
> I guess I should get a program that actually tracks word count... nah, AO3 is better.  
> Anyways, enjoy this chapter! I actually had a plan for it, in case you couldn't tell...

**Simulated Alliance of Love:**

Week One: Monday:

**Ayano’s POV:**

Ayano had gone to bed early last night, since despite being good at games, she couldn’t get truly invested or immersed in the gaming experience, and thus was able to keep track of time well enough to quit playing not long before bedtime.

Midori had groaned at her, but she’s easily distracted, no worries there.

What, or rather who, Ayano was worried about, however, was Osana.

For you see, although her and Raibaru had talked over Yancord about Osana’s likes and dislikes, trying their best to make Raibaru more appealing to Osana, and a better fit, and she was sure Raibaru would play her part as the lover of the tsundere girl, there was one glaring problem:

What if Osana was straight?

They knew that Osana wasn’t lesbian, due to her liking Taro-Senpai, who is male.

They didn’t know, however, if Osana had any attraction to girls, which would make her bi.

Since Raibaru was a girl, the entirety of their plan to get the two friends to be lovers hinged entirely on Osana’s sexuality being that of Bi.

If it wasn’t, both girls would have wasted hours of their time on Saturday.

But, then again, their alliance would still stand. They’d find a boy that Osana liked, and that liked Osana, which shouldn’t be difficult for them, given that Ayano was a master at stalking.

...except she hadn’t properly stalked anyone ever before. The one time she’d tried, she ended up casually befriending the group and walking alongside them.

All of this went through Ayano’s head as she got up, and got ready for school. Typical stuff, like getting out of her pyjamas and showering, getting dressed into her school uniform, nothing worthy of a few hundred words describing every detail.

Not even she was bored enough to do such a thing.

One significant detail, however, was her skirt. She used the one that her mother had modified to fit items within, so as to more easily store stuff, like her phone.

She grabbed her backpack, and slung it around her shoulders.

As she put it on, she checked her phone.

Oh, right. This could be of use.

Info-Chan.

She renamed the unknown number as such for convenience’s sake, and messaged her:

”Do you know of any boy with a crush on Osana Najimi?”

If she did, that’d be creepy, but at the same time, entirely within her character as the omniscient watcher of the school, and a dirty pervert who sells panty shots.  
She also had nearly everyone’s dark secrets, apparently. Ayano wondered what hers would be. That her mother was a Yandere and a murderer and that she herself may be one too?

That’s common knowledge, Info. No cigar there, Sherlock. The Journalist was out of a job because he tried to tackle that case and was likely somewhere in America, probably also being the one that her mother had gone off to greet, taking her father with her.

And she couldn’t think of any other dark secrets Info might have about her, so she guessed she was part of the reason it was “nearly” everyone’s dark secrets. The other parts were probably Taro-Senpai, who has no dark secrets or anything bad about him, and... Shiromi Torayoshi... that creepy, always smiling white-haired girl she’d bumped into a few times before.

It was a surprise that that white tiger girl had been accepted into the Student Council, especially this early into the year, considering that she was a first-year student. She must have done something that truly impressed Megami on one of those taster days where the potential newcomers to the school get shown around, to see what the school’s like. Or whatever they were called, she couldn’t be asked to remember that stuff.

Anyways, she spent some time making breakfast, and by the time she was done, Info-Chan had sent her a new message.

However, because Ayano didn’t typically need to get notifications on her phone, they were disabled, and thus she did not know that Info-Chan had sent the new message until she was eating breakfast.

When she did, however, disappointment washed over her, into her body, out through her mouth as a sigh of inconvenience.

_”That will be 5 info points.”_

”And how do I obtain ‘info points’?”

_”Well, one panty shot is worth one info point, but a higher-value target is worth more info points.”_

”Why do you even need panty shots anyways?”

_”Some of the boys at this school are dirty perverts. They’re useful for favours, and money.”  
“I won’t say who they are, but they are all rich, and pay a significant amount for each panty shot, hence the points system.”_

Ah, so that was how it was? Alright then.

”How else can I obtain Info Points?”

It would be quite risky for her to stick her phone up other girls’ skirts and take those shots, as she wasn’t that stealthy. And the system was called ‘Info Points’, not ‘Panty Shots’, so obviously there were other ways of obtaining them.

_”Gather information about the rest of the students for me. Place bugs around school. I would advise that you arrive to school early today, but it seems you already do.”_

True. She had gotten into the routine of getting up early and going to school early in preparation for when she’d meet her Senpai, since she might need to do some preparation at school. She’d planned ahead, and extensively so, due to her boredom and free time.

It was at this exact moment that she realised that she didn't have any bugs of her own to plant around school for Info-Chan, which she was surprised at, herself, since she'd prepared pretty much all other creepy ways of getting info on her potential Senpai... to varying success...

Nevertheless it came as a genuine and concerning surprise that she did not have any bugs of her own, so she began to type out a request to the other girl to obtain some.

However, halfway through typing the message, her phone vibrated, signifying that Info-Chan had sent her response, but Ayano didn't realise that since she hardly ever used her phone anyways.

It made her jolt a tiny bit in surprise, but that surprise quickly settled as she saw and read the (allegedly) red-haired girl's ammendment:

_"You can obtain those bugs by going to Info Club on the third floor. I shall deliver them to you from there."_

Info Club, huh? She hadn't seen that one on the posters at the end of the locker room on Friday... perhaps it wasn't actually a club, and was just called a club room for convenience's sake or something...

Hmm...

"You have an entire room to yourself?"

_"Yes."_

"How?"

_"All that I will say is that a little bit of blackmail can go a long way, and you are not exempt from its effects, either."_

She didn't quite understand what Info-Chan meant, there wasn't any blackmail on her, no dark secrets, nothing that could possib-

_"After all, some people find it quite rude to hide your true self behind a mask, even if that mask is benevolent in intent."_

Oh. Bringing up the 'Emotionless girl' card.

That wouldn't work, either, Info. You need better info, or you might be out of a job.

...was being Info-Chan a real job? Wait yes of course it was, she had mentioned that those dirty pervert boys paid lots of money for what she had to give, of course some of that would go into her pocket.

Well, whether it was or was not did not matter to the emotionless girl, she had to focus on finishing up her breakfast, preparing a bento for lunch today, and putting a few finishing touches on herself, pretty herself up for Taro-Senpai.

When she was done with that, she pulled out her phone once again.

Oh... Senpai...

She looked at a picture of him, taken with his permission when they'd walked home together.

Osana had, naturally, photobombed it, but it didn't take away from the sight of him.

"Don't worry. Before long... you'll be mine..."

And thus, having prepared everything that she could, she carefully opened the front door of her house, and stepped out.

...

She closed the door behind her, having not turned around, instead keeping the Protective Raibaru Fumetsu in her sight.

She walked up to the cutesy girl, and informed her:

"You know exactly what to do."

"Don't worry! I'm sure Osana will see it by the end of today!"

"Let us hope so..."

And at that, the two began to walk to school together, Ayano not particularly caring to ask why the other girl had chosen to do this, for it was obvious.

It was something "true friends" did, even if that usually connoted that romantic connections were between the two.

...which, given that the two were closer friends now to try to turn one of their mutual friends to loving one of them, was kind of true.

There was a romantic reasoning behind their friendship, but no romance between the two in and of themselves.

As the two walked, Raibaru was almost uncharacteristically excited about what was to come:

"I can't believe I'm only a few days away from being with Osana for the rest of my life!"

"Patience, my young padawan. In time, it will happen, but for now, keep your attention in the here and now, where it belongs."

"Where's that from?"

At that, something broke slightly within the emotionless girl's mind, but it was quickly fixed and surpressed. God, whatever Midori was doing was having some kind of effect, and it was clearly a bad one at that.

"It's from the Star Wars Prequels. Midori's a part of a meme sublectrit about it."

"...what's a sublectrit?"

"It's a subsection of the website Lectrit. You wouldn't understand it even if I tried to explain it, and I can barely understand it from what Midori's told me about it either."

The two continued on walking, and before long they arrived at the neighbourhood of Taro and Osana.  
Naturally, the childish girl was already standing there, and realised, that the two were approaching her.

She seemed amusedly curious as to why they were doing so, before suddenly remembering that they were her friends.

”Oh! You’re here to walk to school together. Sorry, I was about to leave without you, guess it's a good thing Taro’s taking a while. As usual.”

The two joined her in waiting.

And waiting.

The three waited a few minutes before Taro-Senpai finally opened the door, hastily closing it behind him as if running from someone dangerous.

Dangerous... or unwanted, Ayano noted, knowing now exactly who it was. Brilliant.

He walked vaguely in the direction of Akademi for a few seconds before suddenly realising that the trio were there.  
“Oh! Sorry, I kept you waiting-“

”As usual... dummy.”

”Sorry, Hanako doesn’t want to let me go sometimes...”

Of course she didn’t. For whatever reason... it meant that she’d have to be dealt with. But later.

Osana made a sound of slight disgruntlement and recognition of the annoyance that was the littler girl, but didn’t actually say anything.

So then three were four, and those four walked together as one, Raibaru making sure she was closer to Osana than Taro was.

Ayano couldn’t bring herself to make conversation with Taro, instead staying in the background.

Osana had none of said insecurities, or at least, she had them in different places. As in, she could start a conversation, she just couldn’t express herself properly.

...which, ok, Ayano guessed she herself had more insecurities around Taro-Senpai than Osana did. So what? It didn’t mean anything.

Well, Osana had begun to talk to Taro-Senpai. Might as well listen in, it’s probably important to better ascertain their relationship and how it can be... _manipulated._

“So Taro, what did you dream about last night?”

A question of dreams? How interesting. Her own dreams had never been too interesting before, save for all the ones she had ever since meeting Taro-Senpai... perhaps there was a connection there.

“Well, it was more of a nightmare, but I was standing under one of the cherry trees at school.”

”Oh! How romantic!”

Raibaru, whose side are you even on?!

And Taro just looks all the more uncomfortable at that...

”Well, it wasn’t that romantic... I was stuck there, I couldn’t move my body.”

Well then. It seems there might actually be a connection between Taro-Senpai and dreams after all! And she had just been joking, to distract her from the annoying-

“That sounds horrible!”

-ginger haired girl that just had to speak up right then. Brilliant.

”Yeah, it was. I had to just stand there and look at the grass grow or something. But... it looked... old.”

”In what way?”

Osana, please, he was going to continue anyway, your input was unnecessary.

”I don’t know how to describe it, other than that it felt... nostalgic? No, not that. But it felt familiar, even though this is the first time I’ve ever had that dream.”

Ayano decided to input her own unencessity:

“And could you see anything other than the grass?”

Taro-Senpai seemed to relax slightly at the sound of her voice. _Good._ That was the first step, or one of them at least...

”Well, I could vaguely make out that Akademi was to my left, but it looked different...”

”In what way?”, said all three of the girls at the same exact time. Creepy, but as some people say, ‘great minds think alike’.  
...Whoever made that quote must have thought they were a ‘great mind’.

“Well, I don’t really remember...”

And really, that was all that needed to be said on that matter.

However, something else needed to be said on a different matter.

Raibaru realised this about a second before Ayano did, saying it out loud before the emotionless girl could fully consider saying anything:

”Osana, what do you think of boys?”

This was an awkward question to ask at any time, but the cutesy girl decided it was best to say it now rather than never.

Well, judging by how Osana just flinched in fear a bit, she had had bad experience with some boys.

”W-well, some of them, not you Taro, most of them are either awful dumb idiots, or dirty perverts who just won’t stop-“

She paused herself there, her fear of some boy out there being made so evident, it began to stir... something, within Ayano.

Perhaps it was due to the presence of Taro-Senpai, though.

Yes, that was definitely the reason!

On a more relevant note, a Concerned Raibaru has made an appearance here:

”If someone’s hurting you, I can-“

”No you don’t have to - look, we’ll talk about this later, ok?”

Well, now Ayano’s interest had been captured. As well as, apparently, Taro-Senpai’s.

”Osana. You know you can just talk to us, right?”

Except for the fact that she seemed adamantly against the idea of talking to Taro normally.

”Never mind, Taro, it doesn’t even matter anyway...”

Well, whilst they were at a lull in the conversation, it was the perfect opportunity to-

Of course, Raibaru naturally followed the plan.

“So what do you think of girls, then?”

This reaction was interesting, at least in the tactical eyes of Ayano, seeing the emotional mess that Osana became, blushing strongly and ducking her head. Yes, she was bisexual. Good.

She took out her phone, to message Info-Chan to say “hey I don’t need the info about that boy anymore”

Said girl (presumably. There was a thick haze of mystery around her.), was already there, however, having sent the message:

_”You already know who has a crush on Osana. You just wanted to see if she would like her back. The answer is yes.”_

God, Ayano loved using “No cigar, Sherlock”, whenever Info stated something she already knew. Though, if she did use it, Info would probably not take it well.

"Do you have any information I do not already know?"

A few seconds later, as if she had pasted this in, Info-Chan's response appeared:

_"There may be one boy with a crush on Osana: Kyuki Kongawa. I suggest you keep an eye on him."  
_

Yep, definitely copy-pasted right then. Raibaru'd probably want to know about this guy, but at the same time, he was a 'Coward' according to Info-Chan.

And Raibaru Fumetsu was... well, Raibaru Fumetsu, the Indestructible Rival, one of the most feared girls at school.

Yeah. She got the feeling she'd'nt (is that a thing? Or should it just be: "She would not"... whatever) need to keep track of him, he'd back away pretty quick and let Raibaru have Osana.

Good for her.

Oh hey, they were at school now.

Osana seemed to be the first to realise this, shouting (at the top of her lungs, it seemed...)

"We're early?!"

Yeah, they were the first ones there, it seemed.

Ayano looked around, seeing no one except their group of four.

This did not, however, mean they got to shout up the place.

"Well, looks like we're early-"

"Heya."

All four of them jumped at that one singular word, uttered in a dull, bored tone.

...

The source, was of course, ~~sans Und-~~ **not** Sans Undertale, because Sans Undertale isn't real.

It was actually Shiromi.

She'd materialised from the air, or so it seemed, even to the perceptive Ayano. Just where had she come from, anyway?

"No need to be so loud. Have a snickers."

Wait what. Why.

Osana was just as confused as all the others.

"Why woul-"

"Because you're not you when you're hungry."

Oh great, that meme. Good job Shiromi.

And now Ayano was curious. Just what was Shiromi like?

She remembered what Info-chan had told her, and took out her phone.

And pointed it at the patiently waiting white-haired girl, and took a photo. And sent it to Info-chan.

She then gestured to Osana, and gave a message:

"I wouldn't try to pick on her if I were you."

"Is that a threat, Aishi-senpai, or a warning?"

"Aren't those the same thing?"

Captain Obvious has been promoted to the rank of General! Congratulations Taro-Senpai! You win!

Ayano looked back at the boy, blushing slightly at the sight of him, and his much closer presence now.

"Eh, I've got other things to do now. Goodbye for now."

And then she just left, leaving everything an enigma.

* * *

**Shiromi POV:**

Out of earshot and eyesight of the group, Shiromi let out a sigh... ~~row me~~.

She'd gotten all the information she needed, and only after about... was it fourty seconds? Or was it 43.16? She couldn't tell.

But the info was there, she just needed to report it back to Megami.

After all, the older white-haired girl had given her a place on the student council specifically for her talent at gathering information, at a level which rivalled the legendary Info-Chan.

Heh, Info-chan, the one most believed to be a mere myth. She wasn't, and Shiromi knew it, but had no proof. Oh well.

Back to the group.

Speaking of Info-chan, it was clear the young Aishi girl had contact with her. This could go either way, good or bad. Too early to tell.

The four of them seemed to be on friendly terms. Aishi girl, Osana Najimi, Raibaru Fumetsu, and Osana's male friend. Whatever his name was, she'd forgotten.

Well, she'd find out later. The Aishi girl had found him to be her Senpai, as shown by her brief display of emotions when he'd stepped forwards.

Just like Megami had said, she was emotionless except when she was close to her Senpai.

Osana had an obvious crush on her friend, too.

This... was bad. If Megami was right, then Osana was doomed.

Not that she could do anything about it, or would do anything, either.

But another obvious crush was Raibaru and Osana.

Clearly one-sided, but that'd change, probably.

Aishi-chan wouldn't let Osana take her Senpai, so she'd redirect the girl towards Raibaru.

Or, if Megami's word was taken to the extreme, Aishi would kill Najimi and probably Fumetsu, too.

Well, whatever the case, Shiromi found it cute how the Aishi had reacted to that boy, and Raibana (Osaibaru?) was a long-standing ship.

She smiled, wondering what the other two's names were so she could make a ship name for them. {Ayaro or Tarano?}

Oh no, looks like she'd have to report to the Council. Great.

* * *

**Ayano POV:**

Well, that girl was walking away surprisingly quickly.

But she had other priorities for now.

She'd have to meet up with Info at her 'club', and obtain those bugs, and place them all around the school. Not much point dilly-dallying over here.

And yet, one thing had to be done first.

"Can I get a photo of all of you?"

She'd have to obtain more info about them, so that she could more easily track them.

Taro-Senpai seemed rather eager to have his picture taken, which just made Osana even more unnevered than she already was.

Nonetheless she let her picture be taken, too.

Raibaru seemed contemplative about the thought at first, and then seemed to realise, and relax, at some thought. Not that it mattered.

The three photos, with their faces in full centre frame for easier identification, were sent to Info, as she excused herself.

"Sorry, I've got to go meet a friend. I'll meet you again at lunch time."

And then she left at a reasonable pace, not wanting to delay Info-Chan any longer, running into the building of Akademi itself.

* * *

**Raibaru POV:**

Ayano's actions right then were quite odd in her eyes, but they all seemed to revolve around her phone.

So it seemed that she had a contact on her phone that she was friends with now...

Oh! It was Info-Chan. That one... well, she was essentially a neutral source of information.

Well, that and the things she asked of people sometimes...

Good thing was, though, Ayano was sensible, she wouldn't just take any job, so she's not just a pawn of the mysterious figure...

Well, if it helped her and Osana get together, it was a risk she'd accept taking.

Besides, she herself didn't have a phone, she couldn't get manipulated by Info-Chan, only Ayano.

And her nightmare had shown her that if Ayano did decide to do anything... well, it was a last resort.

Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

* * *

**Taro POV:**

He had to admit, the way that Ayano always acted when she was around him was... kind of strange.

And not strange in the way he'd heard about her, the emotionlessness. No.

Around him, and only him, she seemed to express herself properly, showing emotions.

Even if said emotions were a flood of lovestruck desire.

He wasn't as oblivious as Osana always said he was.

In a way, he could relate to Ayano, because of one thing they had in common: (well, besides both looking painfully average in a school full of above average students)

They were both bad at actually expressing their emotions.

Which, yeah, he shared that with Osana, too, but...

He didn't want to break his friendship with her, and neither did she, but he was getting a slight bit tired of her tsundere attitude.

One day, he'd have to speak up and tell her that she could just express her true feelings without hiding them.

But... he was too afraid of losing her. Who knows how she'd take it?

And it was also quite out of the character that he'd built up, the quiet, smart loner that was seemingly oblivious to the world.

Regardless, as Ayano left to go talk to her 'friend', who was definitely Info-Chan, he found his eyes following her run into the building.

Wanting...

"HEY!"

Oh, whoops! Osana was _right_ there.

* * *

**Ayano POV:**

She'd said that Info Club was on the third floor, so she went to the staircase right away, and went right up.

Ground floor... second floor... third floor.

Alright, now to run around until she found the room itself.

Which she did, easily, without even running into any Student Council members. She'd entirely expected to run into one of them, but guess not.

And there it was, a typical room, except with curtains blocking sight through the main window, and also the windows on the doors.

She peeked through the main curtain, taking note that it was on the wrong side if it wanted to be effective... which, actually, there was a security camera just as visible. That would be even more effective.

...If anyone was even checking its feed.

But from the light emitted by the monitors at the end of the room, there was nobody in the chair at the desk with said monitors.

There was assorted computer-y hacker-y stuff she couldn't care less about.

What was important was the girl herself. Info-Chan.

And the fact that she wasn't he-

 _Knock knock_.

A knocking sound emerged, from inside the room itself.

In there, and to her left.

It was actually from the door to her left.

So, she stepped away from the curtains, and went to that exact door.

It opened, slightly, but only for a few short seconds, as ten bugs - information tracking type ones, not insects - were pushed towards her from within. Pushed by someone she couldn't see under a clearly makeshift blanket thrown over themself.

And then, they were closed once more, and a clear and obvious _click!_ sound was heard.

So Info Club was locked. Gotcha.

She picked up the bugs and placed them into her skirt, amazed at the convenience of the location. Whoa, technology!

It was at this moment that she knew.

She didn't know where to put the bugs.

She checked her phone, since that was where she'd get the information from.

A few messages had been recieved, some mocking her for not knowing how to enable notifications, which she followed, for extra convenience.

And another that told her the exact locations of where she should place the ten bugs:

_-ONE:_

_-Under the printer in the Faculty Room._

That was on the ground floor, and had teachers in it. Nope.

_-TWO:_

_-Underneath the Headmaster's desk in his room._

She went there, since it was on the third floor and close by, but was stopped by the headmaster himself being there.

Maybe she'd do it later.

_-THREE:_

_-Under the chemistry table in the Science Club._

Also on the third floor, conveniently enough.

It was especially easy to do since none of them were there yet.

And yet, as she placed the bug and left the room, she got the feeling of being watc-

"Yan-chan, Yan-chan!"

Why was Midori here.

"I'm busy."

"Aww, but you're always busy Yan-chan!"

She ignored the green gamer girl and her alliteration always activating attacks aggravation thing that truly always accidentally occured. Oh great.

Well, next one:

_-FOUR:_

_-Under the table in the Photography Club, near Fureddo Jonzu._

Well, she wouldn't know where to put it if that wasn't the extra information given.

But anyways, she guessed it was the one at the head of the table. Easy enough.

Leaving the room she checked to see if Midori was still trying to annoy her, but it seemed she'd left her alone.

But only for now, since she was... inevitable.

_-FIVE:_

_-On the opposite wall next to the delinquents._

_Note: They hang out near the Incinerator._

So, the incinerator place. Ok.

Easy enough, it just meant she was now outside of the building, where people might see her.

They weren't starting to come in just yet, since they'd come here _really_ early, but they'd come eventually. Midori was proof of that.

_-SIX:_

_-Under the first sink in the Shower Room._

_Note: The female one, since the male one is less interesting._

Thanks for the clarification, though she was slightly intrigued at the last part of the message. A thought for later, though.

Nonetheless all that happened of note was that she caught sight of Shiromi once more, though the same could not be said for the enigmatic girl in question.

It was a simple in-and-out.

_-SEVEN:_

_-On the wall at the Outdoor Cafeteria_

Also easy. Guess she was the only one of her 'clients' that she actually used.

_-EIGHT:_

_-Under Megami's desk in the Student Council Room._

_Note: You will know it when you see it._

Welp, looks like she was going back into the building.

She already knew where that room was, so it didn't take her long to get there, and look around.

Did she mean the one with the laptop...

Oh right, it had almost slipped from her mind that the Saikou Heiress had been absent on Monday, and that she'd be attending through laptops.

Which, of course, were Saikou branded ones.

Ayano carefully approached the laptop.

...

From behind, of course, so that she could actually place the bug underneath the desk, which had stuff in the way on the front side.

After placing the bug there she quickly and quietly left the room.

What next?

_-NINE:_

_-Under Megami's laptop in the Meeting Room._

Well that'd be risky, since she might just turn on the laptop and get caught in the probably illegal act.

Whatever. Not many people were around, so it was a quick trip down the stairs (not literally), until she found the meeting room.

Again, approach from behind. Lift it up... no, maybe it had motion sensors.

She ended up putting it under that desk, too.

Last one...

_-TEN:_

_-On the railing by the north-western rooftop ventilation shaft._

Why specifically that one of all places? Oh well, it seemed like a nice place for people to gossip.

Once that was done, she messaged Info-Chan once more:

"I was able to do all except 1 and 2."

_"Well, that's good enough for 40 info points. Here's a quick guide of what you can spend them on:"_

Attached were a few .png files.

One was labelled 'schemes', one 'drops', one 'services'.

'schemes' seemed to be... lethal methods of eliminating her rival, with Raibaru apparently being the subject of the image shown within.

'drops' showed a few items that might be useful for her to have, like a headset, or a directional mic, or a wad of cash.

And by 'might be useful' she meant 'Not actually useful but you never know'.

Except that last one. She had gotten a job, and was as proud as an emotionless girl could be at that fact.

And 'services' was all stuff that would be useful if she needed to get Osana either expelled or ridiculed and bullied.

Which was _**not**_ what she was going to do.

_"One last thing, here is the information on those you asked for:"_

Four images were attached, each one providing surface-level information about the four she'd taken a photo of:

_"Shiromi Torayoshi:"_

_"Treasurer of the student council. A mysterious & enigmatic young woman. Known to be calm & relaxed at all times. Some students find her unsettling."_

Not relevant really, and nothing more than she already knew about her.

Actually, none of the ones sent to her were even worth anything, which was probably why they'd been sent to her for free, without having to spend 'info points'.

She couldn't really complain.

If anything it proved that Info-Chan was serious about having and being able to give her information about any student. Even if the proof was quite weak.

She'd spend the 40 info points later.

For now, it was time to maintain her image.

She went to find Midori again. Class would start soon, so she'd most likely be in the Gaming Club by now.

The 'unofficial' one, that the school really couldn't be bothered to take down, since it wasn't harming anyone.

Upon seeing her, Midori leaped up from her game and tackled her like she'd just discovered what rugby was.

"Yan-chan! I had a dream last night!"

Oh great, she was just dying to know more.

"I was in Undertale!"

Wow, what a generic, boring, uninteresting dream, being in the world of a game you've played.

"Except it wasn't really Undertale... it was a lot more edgy..."

"Then what was it?"

"Oh! That's right, it was that AU called Underfell!"

Great, lesson learned: don't ever encourage her.

"It was so strange falling down and meeting that world's Chara, but he and I went on an amazing journey through the Underground! And-"

She'd left earshot of the gushing green gamer girl at an astonishing powerful pace.

It was getting close to class time, so she might as well find Osana and Raibaru.

...

* * *

She went up and down the stairs and searched every floor at an astonishing rate, but the twin-tailed duo didn't come into her sight.

And now the Class Time Bells have started. Brilliant.

There really was nothing to do but go to class and meet them there, then.

...

On the way, she almost bumped into someone, but she’d been more cautious walking through the hallways ever since she’d met Taro-Senpai.

Which... it would be convenient and hilarious if that boy was the one before her that hadn’t been looking where he was going, but it wasn’t.

This one was Budo. Greeeeeat.

Him again? Whenever he was around her he was a completely different person than what she’d heard he was.

She’d heard he was a Martial Arts Master, always one to throw a Bruce Lee quote into any conversation, and completely justice-minded, as well as a nice guy to talk to.

The contrast between that and the Budo in front of her was astonishing.

To make a long story short, he wasn’t keeping the fact that he had a crush on her a secret. And yet, to most, it would go beneath notice.

Small details, like a tiny stutter, a slightly pinker face, a bit of shakiness all around his body...

It was sickening.

He was an obstacle, he didn't offer anything to her whatsoever.

She silently wished he'd go away, and die somewhere, but considering who he was... it gave her a slight hint of what fear might be.

"Oh! Hey Ayano! Didn't see you there!"

Really, Budo, going to play that trick on her? She wasn't the imperceptive Taro.

"I saw you waiting to do this, you can't fool me."

He backtracked at the accusation. Good.

"Well, Ayano-"

Might as well get him out of the way now, rather than later.

"I know you have a crush on me. I do not care about you."

"..."

He seemed crushed by this, his persona of being a strong, heroic boy breaking apart.

That could be bad, she didn't want to know what kind of monster might hide behind his strength.

Time to redirect him to her OTP.

"Budo, please. Oka's a better fit for you than I am, just wait for her to come back from the hospital."

He looked her dead in the eyes, neither of them flinching at this eye contact.

A staring contest began. Who would win?

...

"Aren't you Oka's closest friend though?"

Oh. That was... true, though quite inconvenient at the same time.

"We'll talk about this later, before we are almost late to class. Hurry up."

At that, he seemed to mentally kick himself, and he said a quick "see you later!" and rushed past her, going towards the staircase to go to his class on the third floor.

Well, now that that was dealt with, time for class.

...wow, for cereal with milk, (?) she was quite close to being late there, but made it in on time nonetheless.

* * *

Well, class was boring as usual, she could see!

She'd worked with the two twin-tailed non-twins on another of the seemingly infinite class projects. Woo.

Though, the stuff about physical strength had caught her attention. Hmmmm...

...

And now it was lunch time, finally.

And at this point, something happened that threw everyone off:

That popular girl that sat next to her saw Osana and Raibaru close to each other, and apparently couldn't keep her thoughts in her head:

"Oh my gaawd those two look sooo cute together!"

This, of course, caused Osana to blush profusely, and Raibaru to step in between the bully girl and her friend.

But, instead of giving her a death glare, she instead must have decided "yeah this is a good opportunity to get closer to Osana". Especially after what she'd heard not so long ago...

And thus she instead gave a more... _challenging_ look, as if _daring_ her to say something more about her and her cute girlfriend.

Which, that girl, Hana, took, hook, line and sinker:

"You two should hold hands!"

Aaaand Osana seems to not know how to do anything in reaction to anything, other than to just blush even more and start shaking, as if going through a bit of a mental breakdown...

"Alright then! Osana, would you like to hold my hand?"

* * *

**Osana POV:**

She looked up at her close friend, not truly grasping what had just been said.

Raibaru wanted to... hold hands with her?

Surely they weren't that close friends, surely she hadn't been going after the wrong guy all these past few days...

Right?

Well, she couldn't decline a friendly hand-holding.

She reached for Raibaru's hand with her own, slowly at first, then gaining confidence in a surge of fortitude, firmly grasping the... woah, _much_ stronger hand in her own, tightly.

Even if she did have a strong grip, it was oddly comforting, to say the least.

It felt... right...?

No, this was wrong! Raibaru was just a friend, Taro was her real lover!

...right?

The comfort turned to discomfort, and she began shaking all over, getting out of the hand-holding so she wouldn't spiral any further downwards into this uncertainty.

* * *

**Ayano POV:**

So, Osana was conflicted.

Made sense.

After all, up until this point, she'd only seen Taro-Senpai as her love, but now she was beginning to see it her way:

Raibaru was pretty much made for Osana, so the two should be together, leaving Taro-Senpai to her.

Anyways, Hana was lightly teasing the two for their obvious 'MADE FOR EACH OTHER'-ness or whatever, but then got a notification on her phone and left, probably going back to being just another part of Musume's clique of bullies.

The three were now alone in the classroom, standing around, awkwardly.

After a bit, she decided to just go.

"Well, I'm leaving you two to have a... private moment, if you want."

And then the two both realised she was there.

And Osana finally seemed to get over her mental breakdown, or so it seemed:

"No! Let's... let's just go to the rooftop already."

"I was already planning on doing so."

"Well we can't just stand around here-"

"Fine! Let's go already!!"

In a fit of apparent impatience, Osana grabbed Raibaru's hand and began to drag her away, walking towards the exit doors.

Raibaru and Ayano just went along with it and followed her up to the rooftop.

Of course, they walked over to the same old place as they had on Friday, where Taro-Senpai was already... waiting...

And so was Budo, having been talking to Taro-Senpai until the trio came into view.

This would be quite the awkward lunch time...

"And you say I always keep you waiting..."

Wow, does Taro-Senpai actually have a spine? That was news to her.

"Are you two going out?"

Good question, Budo, pointing out the obvious for the oblivious boy that's apparently your friend- oh. Right. She should have already known, but had somehow forgotten that Budo was in one of those pictures with Taro-Senpai. Great.

And it seemed that Osana didn't realise how bad it would be for her developing relationship with Taro-Senpai that she was holding hands with Raibaru.

Hastily, she let go of her hand and stammered out some _bull-_

"Don't get the wrong idea! I just feel safer when we're holding hands..."

An awkward pause began, everyone in the group looking at Osana, as if waiting for her to utter her famous catch phrase.

Which... she didn't. What?

"It's okay, Osana, there's nothing wrong with showing your feelings. Come on, let's have lunch already!"

Ok then, so she was being the voice of reason again. Nice.

They sat down, and got into a circle, as well as getting out their lunch bentos.

...which, Taro-Senpai didn't have. That was no problem, she didn't need her-

"Did you forget to bring your own lunch again?"

"Well..."

"Here, just have mine, as usual, baka."

There it was! But, at the same time, it was also very, very wrong.

Taro-Senpai was perfect. He wasn't a dummy, he was the entire world, and this ginger girl didn't deserve any of it. She was lucky Ayano had a distaste for murder, and that Raibaru existed.

Budo, on the other hand, didn't seem to see it that way.

"Well, you've convinced me. I ship it now."

A choking noise could be heard from Raibaru, who like her former apprentice had been entirely forgotten about in this conversation.

Speaking of the two, it had been rumoured that Budo had a crush on her, but Ayano knew first-hand that that was incorrect. The boy only cared about her.

Either way, he was an obstacle, and a difficult one at that. Her best bet was setting him up with Oka, and she wouldn't be here for a while.

Anyways, Osana was back in full Tsundere mode.

"No, it's not like that, it's-"

"-Clearly obvious that you two are more than 'just friends'?"

Light-hearted teasing from the martial arts master was translated into demonic chanting of some kind to the ears of the now-given-emotions girl.

And these emotions allowed her to spin the conversation around:

"No, Budo, it's even more obvious that her and your former master are the true lovers here."

Well, that certainly threw a curveball into everyone's minds, since they'd apparently forgotten that she was there, too.

Taro-Senpai got a smug expression on his face that rivalled the one that was on Shiromi's face all the time, or on Kencho Saikou's face.

Budo's own face turned contemplative, as if trying to figure out whether that ship was feasible. C'mon, of course it was!

Raibaru was a mixture of thankful to Ayano, and embarrased by her.

And Osana was... oh god.

Osana seemed to be on the verge of a complete and utter mental breakdown...

"Well! Taro! You forgot to say 'thank you'!"

She was not alright. Not alright at all, and everyone could see it.

Smirking, a thought came to Ayano, and left her mouth shortly afterwards:

"Raibaru, you should take your friend to the Infirmary, she looks like she needs to calm down in there."

And that wasn't even a joke, either. Osana was shaking and muttering incomprehensible gibberish like a madman.

How she was still sitting properly and not running away anyway was unknown, probably just basic human physics she guessed.

"Osana, you don't look so good. Come on, let's take you to the Infirmary."

And Osana calmed down at the voice of Raibaru, whether she liked it or not.

* * *

**Osana POV:**

She couldn't understand herself.

She had a crush on Taro, and only Taro. Her childhood friend, who she'd known for years now.

So why was it that she was now starting to feel attracted to this girl she'd only met a few months ago?!

Not that there was anything wrong with that! It was perfectly fine to be attracted to girls, but...

It was just the suddenness of it all.

How had she gotten so... cute, so quickly?!

Was there even any point to trying to go after Taro any more, if she was already close friends with Raibaru?

She got up, alongside her friend, and together they walked to the infirmary.

When they got there, she'd calmed down a lot, but still needed a break from all of this to think over her entire life up to this point.

"Can I stay with you?"

"No, sorry, I just need some time to think this all over. Go on without me, I'm sure I'll be fine..."

"I'm just worried about you, Osana. Between this and what you told me earlier..."

...

"It just feels like something bad is about to happen, that's all."

**Raibaru POV:**

Of course, she wouldn't tell her about that nightmare she had, since she knew Ayano wasn't really like that.

But like it or not, it was still possible, so she'd keep an eye on Ayano until she proved she wasn't evil...

...which, it really was impossible to prove. That was a problem.

Well, she couldn't keep an eye on Ayano if she wasn't near Ayano, and Osana wanted to be left alone, so she left.

Going back to their place on the rooftop, she saw that Ayano and Taro had gotten a bit closer to each other, and Budo was watching with a bored...

...no, that wasn't boredom.

If she didn't know him better, she'd almost think he was planning something... evil?

No, that couldn't be right! She was just seeing things.

* * *

**Budo POV:**

A bit after the two had left, what remained of the group had gotten a lot more awkward.

Ayano, his own crush, had her own crush on his friend Taro, and that was bad for him.

She'd said his best bet was with Oka, but she wasn't here. She was in hospital, and might not even make it out of there, either.

The two club leaders were good friends, but not close friends. And the clash of their personalities would make any possible romance impossible to develop.

He wanted Ayano, but she wanted Taro.

Well, the answer was clear. He'd just have to... _have a friendly conversation_ with his friend.

"Are you alright, Budo?"

Think of the devil, and he will break your train of thought.

"Yes, I'm fine, I'm just... thinking."

His eyes went to Ayano once more, and saw her own eyes were filled with... hatred.

One that he reflected back at his 'friend'. His rival.

The boy who seemed unnerved by the two he was sitting next to, for two different reasons:

**Taro POV:**

On the one hand, he liked Ayano. There, he admitted it, even if it was just to himself.

The girl was much, much cuter and more enjoyable to be around than he'd been told about when he'd asked others about her.

And on the other hand, there was Budo. Budo, who had been his friend for a while now.

And now the boy was staring into his eyes with an evil intent.

Did... did he have a crush on Ayano, too?

Where the hell did that even come from, anyways?  
  
The three had an awkward staredown.

Until...

"Ahem..."

How long had Raibaru been standing there?

* * *

**Ayano POV:**

Well, Budo was jealous of Taro-Senpai. Again, he proved to be a problem. An obstacle.

And all of a sudden, Raibaru made her presence known, breaking all the tension into almost visible pieces that fell out of harm's way.

"Guys, it's almost class time..."

Oh, wasn't that just _so_ convenient.

Oh well, time to head back to class and not have to have that disgusting creature in her sight for a while.

The trip downstairs was boring and typical, and they got to class, where Osana had been kept waiting.

Class was about to start, and it would be boring as usual, except this time the trio had to work separately. Cool.

Even based off of a few glances towards her, though, she could tell Osana was deep in thought about something, not really focusing on her work.

Good, Osana, good!

The next step of the plan was to get Taro-Senpai away from Osana, which would be child's play given how quickly this had happened.

Plenty of time for her to do this, she had until Friday, and that was way too much time!

Time flew by like a blur, or like the wind and... explosions? Yeah, guess explosions make things blurry, and create a great wind. That makes sense.

The trio went again to wait for Taro, and in time he did arrive.

The four of them walked home together.

And then it was three, and then just Ayano herself.

She'd done pretty much all she could today...

Oh wait!

She had to do her job at the maid cafe today!

She'd almost forgot, which could have been really bad, possibly leading to her being fired.

So she got dressed and went to do her job.

Boring as ever, time flew by there, taking orders back and forth as if she was the only one there.

Daydreaming that Taro-Senpai would one day be here... wait.

No, that wouldn't work, he'd be here with someone else. That was unacceptable.

Well, time went by and she got her paycheck. Great to see.

She headed back home, and had nothing to do.

so she might as well have 'fun', doing pointless things to pass the time quicker.

Like, for example, asking Info-Chan if she had any footage of Osoro beating up Musume's clique of Bullies. That'd be interesting.

_"That will be 10 info points. Are you sure?"_

"Yes I am."

_"Then it is done. Pleasure doing business with you."_

She watched as the five bullies ganged up on Horuda Puresu, once again.

And as Osoro stepped in, to 'save' her.

And as the bullies all fell, badly injured, but still concious.

Akane Toriyasu stepped in, and following her was Shiromi.

The two combined tackled Osoro by surprise, and the footage ended there.

Well, not much was learned there, except that Osoro had been dangerous, but the Student Council was even more dangerous.

Now she was curious. How did Info-Chan get this... wait.

Oh. It was another 'client', given the shaky camera footage.

Nice.

Anyways, that aside, she played Calamity Mod again and beat the Profaned Guardians with Midori.

...no, in-game that is. That thought, though, did send a slight chuckle through her mouth, but it was quickly extinguished.

And besides, it was time to go to sleep.

So, sleep she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this got out of hand.  
> Is this fic just going to grow and grow until I literally can't write it any more?  
> ...maybe I'll have to skip a bunch of days to get to the next week, but I hope I'll not have to do that for a while.  
> Or ever, even.  
> I hope all of this effort is worth it, though.  
> I'll be honest, I'm not too sure about some of this chapter, but it works anyways.


	4. A sudden announcement, from nowhere.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back, but not ready just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter has been temporarily deleted to preserve Chapter Four in an air of mystery.  
> But rest assured that by the eleventh of this month, aka next Saturday, fittingly enough, it'll be back.  
> And maybe it'll be accompanied by the legendary "Abridged Edition"...

I have free time now.

The real chapter four will be coming soon, within the next 5 days.

If it's not here by 11/07/2020 (The 11th of July), then SFAL:UE will never be finished, and I guess I'll be able to release the abridged edition.

But I'm not giving up on it.

I've gotta do what I can to bring the fandom back.

I'll delete this chapter soon, so don't expect your comment to stay, but...

_**I'll be working on this.** _

_**And when the time comes, the REAL Chapter Four will take this one's place.** _

_**Was Mista right? Well...** _

_**We'll find out.** _

_**So I guess 23/05/2020 was a few days before I made the majority of that chapter of Astrum Simulation, hm.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, for the sake of not spoiling what will happen in Chapter Four, I've just up and deleted it from this fic in particular, backing it up in a draft.  
> If I don't finish it up by that deadline, then I'll replace this chapter with whatever I had in that draft at the time.  
> There is a possibility that I'll not have enough time to finish it up, this is really just a test of whether I seriously care about this fic.  
> Simulated Friendships and Love... it was really the beginning for me, but life said I couldn't follow through with my promise and slapped me down at my peak.  
> But don't worry, next Saturday, Chapter Four will be more complete, I promise.  
> At the very least, there won't be a rushed note about me whining about my personal life and stuff.  
> And who knows? Maybe I'll actually completely change my mind and given how much Taro-Senpai already likes Ayano, maybe there won't be a Week Two?  
> ...nah. I've gotta reference Astrum Simulation in Chapter Eight, and besides. Osoro in particular would have it out for Ayano for officially declaring her love for Osoro's Taro-Senpai.  
> Hm. Nah, I'll follow the main Yandere Simulator plot. A promise is a promise.

**Author's Note:**

> THE SCHEDULE HAS BEEN BROKEN, FORGOTTEN.  
> Unfortunately so.  
> I can't say I'll be active on either of the two accounts linked below, either.  
> I'll just keep them here for archive's sake.
> 
> The next chapter will come next Saturday. I'm not going to forget this schedule.  
> In the meantime, feel free to check out my other works, or my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC41NK0jR_F8BJQucWcnxNow  
> And on Reddit, too: https://www.reddit.com/user/Orizifian-creator


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